Mencius: Works (Classics)

by Mencius (Author), D.C. Lau (Introduction)

• Used

  Paperback
  1970

  $5.59

  The Confucian philosopher, Mencius (c.371-288 BC) explicated his master's moral principles and reinterpreted them for the harsh conditions of the 4th century BC, when they were threatened by the aggressive and amoral doctrines of legalism. With its stress on the thinking heart (or individual conscience), Mencius is a defence of morality in private and public life.

• New

  Paperback
  2004

  $13.76

  Mencius was one of the great philosophers of ancient China, second only in influence to Confucius, whose teachings he defended and expanded. The Mencius, in which he recounts his dialogues with kings, dukes and military men, as well as other philosophers, is one of the Four Books that make up the essential Confucian corpus. It takes up Confucius's theories of jen, or goodness and yi, righteousness, explaining that the individual can achieve harmony with mankind and the universe by perfecting his innate moral nature and acting with benevolence and justice. Mencius' strikingly modern views on the duties of subjects and their rulers or the evils of war, created a Confucian orthodoxy that has remained intact since the third century BCE.